Match Review: Arsenal 1-2 Brighton
Cast your mind back 20 years to December 1999. It was a Friday night in a leafy suburb of Brighton. 5,049 people were gathered at a converted athletics stadium with no roof in the pissing rain to watch a Division Three match between Brighton and Rochdale. The visitors won 4-3.
A few days previously, Arsenal had won 3-0 away at Leicester City. Just two years earlier, Arsene Wenger had led the Gunners to the double in his first full season in charge.
Over the following two decades, they’d win another double, three FA Cups and become the only side since 1889 to go an entire top flight season unbeaten.
The Albion meanwhile have won five promotions, been relegated twice, rattled through 13 managerial appointments and seen a left winger outpaced down the flank by a squirrel.
A bigger gulf between two clubs you could not find. Highbury had marble halls, the Arsenal way and the invincibles. She wore a yellow ribbon.
Withdean had a bacon baguette van, Colin Hawkins own goals and losing to nine-man Walsall. We wore blue ponchos.
So while all the talk after Graham Potter had masterminded a first ever Brighton win away at Arsenal focused on the decline of the Gunners, there was another narrative at play – the remarkable rise of the Albion.
A victory against one of the big six has been a long time coming. Since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017, we’d made 16 visits to the top flight’s elite clubs. 48 precious points had been up for grabs. The Albion’s return? One point from May’s draw at the Emirates.
This was easily our best chance of getting the win-at-big-six monkey off the back. Chronic mismanagement has seen Arsenal slide from a club who never failed to qualify for the Champions League into one who are now closer to the relegation zone than the top four.
The apathy around the Emirates was clear to see. Arsenal have long been derided for announcing their attendances as “tickets sold” rather than the number of people who have actually turned up to boost their average, allowing them to say “look how well supported we are.”
It’s a trick that the Albion have copied, most notably when there were no more than 13,000 at the Amex for the Tuesday night visit of Wigan Athletic in the dark days of Sami Hyypia’s reign of terror. Official attendance that night – a completely fabricated 23,044.
The history books will show that the Emirates was full to bursting with 60,164. Incredibly, this is actually higher than the ground’s record attendance of 60,161 against Manchester United in 2007.
Realistically, at least 20,000 of those ticket holders decided to stay away. Which was a real shame as they missed a tactical masterclass from Potter and a performance from Brighton that peak Arsenal under peak Wenger would have been proud of.
The first 20 minutes was possession for possessions sake from both teams. The ball was kept with neither side really threatening to score. Given that Arsenal were the home team, it was astounding how deep they were playing with a massive gap between Alexandre Lacazette up front on his own and the rest of his team mates.
This huge swathe of space in midfield played right into the hands of Pascal Gross and the exceptional Aaron Mooy. When Potter deploys his two number 10’s in tandem and they are on this sort of irresistible form, even some of the better Premier League teams will struggle to stop them – let alone one so bereft of form and confidence as Arsenal.
Every time Mooy was on the ball, the hosts looked more scared than Boris Johnson of an interview with Andrew Neil.
That the Albion managed to pick up such a player relatively easily on-loan from a Championship club on the final day of the transfer window becomes a more extraordinary piece of business with each passing game. Tony Bloom should break the bank to make him a permanent player in January if possible.
Neal Maupay was also a lively figure after being dropped for Saturday’s defeat away at Liverpool. The French striker forced Bernd Leno into a couple of first half saves with Aaron Connolly and Handsome Davy Propper also went close before the opener arrived 10 minutes before the break.
It came from a Gross corner, although there was a big helping hand from Arsenal as their marking was atrocious. Dan Burn won the initial downwards header to Aaron Connolly, who had so much time in the middle of the box that he genuinely looked confused as to what to do with it.
Adam Webster wasn’t though, the centre back eventually deciding to take charge of the situation and fire the loose ball past Leno for 1-0. The defending was so bad that Adam’s relatives from Wetherfield, Sally, Rosie or Sophie Webster could have scored.
Arsenal fans began streaming out at that point, and who can blame them for wanting to get onto the concourses early for half time when the Emirates sells cans of wine? Paul Barber please take note.
They nearly missed an instant reply for their side however, Maty Ryan keeping out a header from Joe Willock via an excellent reaction save with his legs.
Whatever Arsenal’s caretaker manager and former underwear model Freddie Ljungberg said at the break clearly had the desired effect as Brighton had to weather an early second half storm.
Just five minutes had elapsed when the Gunners equalised. Mesut Ozil – apparently, he was playing – swung over a corner which Lacazette headed home. There was a VAR check for something or other but the goal was allowed to stand.
David Luiz thought he’d given Arsenal the lead but this time VAR did come to Brighton’s rescue, highlighting that not one, not two, not three, not four but five home players were all offside as Ozil delivered his free kick.
That many highly-paid top flight players getting themselves into offside positions from a single situation was as impressive as it was ridiculous.
With 15 minutes remaining, Potter made two quick-fire substitutions. Martin Montoya replaced Connolly, a full back for a centre forward.
Then Leandro Trossard came on for Steve Alzate, a winger for a 21-year-old who had begun the game in his 113th different position of the season at right back. Alzate has looked great in every single one.
These adjustments seemed to confuse the life out of Arsenal and just four minutes after Trossard’s introduction, the little Belgian teed up the winner as his cross was met by a neat glancing header from Maupay.
Trossard’s having quite the season from the bench. He single handedly won the home games against Everton and Norwich City with 30 minute cameos and although the groundwork was laid by some superb defending and some incisive attacking football prior to Trossard’s introduction, his contribution here was again massive.
Arsenal poured forward after that but you never really felt that the Albion were in danger. Ryan did have to make two fine stops late on from Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pepe, but had the Gunners equalised then it would have been harsh on the Albion and harsh on Potter.
A first win away at one of the big six felt like another huge moment in Brighton’s Premier League story. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 16 games for the next. Based on this showing, we won’t.
